An advertisement offering abortion services will air for the first time on British television next week, The Times of London reported Thursday.

Marie Stopes International, a British charity that carries out about 65,000 abortions a year, said that it wanted to encourage people to speak more openly about abortion, and reach the widest possible audience with information about its services.

However, the move sparked a debate with anti-abortion campaigners who accused the charity of breaking advertising codes to “sell abortion” as if it were a consumer product. They said that they were considering what action to take to prevent further screenings.

The first advertisement will run at 10:10 p.m. on Channel 4 on Monday and the campaign will continue until the end of next month. The number of abortions in Britain has risen steadily since the Abortion Act in 1967 to 195,300 a year. Currently, about one in three women will have an abortion.

The service is offered to all women up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, with the permission of two doctors, and is free on the NHS. About half of the 42,000 teenage pregnancies each year end in abortion.

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